A Time for Family
by Dyani
Summary: "Harry and the Weasleys spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds"... A shamelessly fluffy ficlet starring Harry, Ron, the twins and... someone else? ;P


**Disclaimer of DOOM:** I don't own any of these wonderful characters, but I do have an extensive shrine to Percy in my closet. *sparkly eyes*  
  
**Noteses:** This is a horrible plotless evil fluffmonster which I am rather pleased with (for now - that'll change, I'm sure). It's set during Christmas in bookie number one, in case you couldn't figure it out. Ron and Percy are prolly horribly OOC, but yanno what?? I tried me best. That's all I have to offer. *sniffle* This is my first attempt at an HP fic, so y'know... tell me what you think, but go easy on me, or you might leave some serious emotional scars from which I will never recover. *cheerful grin* Okay then... here goes!!  
  
~  
  
It had been quite an exciting afternoon, Harry thought happily, as he, Ron and the Weasley twins tramped through the snow-covered Hogwarts grounds in the direction of the huge, oaken front doors. They had just finished having the first snowball fight of Harry's life, and he had found the pastime quite to his liking; it didn't matter to him that he and Ron had lost miserably to the near-unbeatable team of Fred and George.  
  
"Really, you're horrible at snowball fights, Harry, has anyone ever told you that?" Ron joked.  
  
"Now Ron," George said happily, "don't be so critical. You _were_ up against the best snowball-fighting team in Britain, you know." He and Fred grinned.  
  
"Only the best in Britain?" said Harry. "Why not best in the world?"  
  
"Why not, indeed!" said Fred, walking backwards so he could look at Harry, eyes wide. "George, we are hereby officially known as The Best Snowball-Fighting Team in the World!"  
  
Ron rolled his eyes. "You'll learn not to encourage them..." he said to Harry under his breath.  
  
"Nonsense! We owe him for uncovering our true potential!" George crowed, cuffing Harry good-naturedly. Ron immediately jumped in to scold his brothers, but Harry truly didn't mind the teasing. He couldn't begin to describe how glad he was to be accepted by Ron's family, never having had real family of his own. The twins both joked with him and teased him just as they did Ron. Even Percy was friendly with him, as long as he didn't catch him breaking the rules. Despite his lack of experience with such matters, Harry had a strong suspicion that the Weasleys were the best family ever.  
  
Quite abruptly, Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a snowball which smashed into Fred's back and nearly sent him sprawling.  
  
"What the -?" Ron yelped, scrambling backwards so Fred didn't slam into him.  
  
"Rogue snowball!" George said gleefully, looking around to see who'd thrown it. Harry looked, too - the only people who seemed to be around were Percy, sitting at the bottom of the stone steps engrossed in a book (the twins had pestered him to join their snowball fight, but he'd refused, attempting a compromise by saying he'd sit outside while they battled), a group of Hufflepuff girls from Fred and George's year who were building a snowwizard off to the right of the front doors, and a Ravenclaw boy who was standing a bit away from the girls, apparently trying to flirt with them but not having much luck.  
  
"Who threw that?!" Fred bellowed. The Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaw turned to stare at them curiously, but Percy didn't even look up from his reading ("Don't know who's worse, him or Hermione," Ron had once said).  
  
"_Honestly!_" Ron said in exasperation, storming off towards the group of girls, apparently ready to give them a piece of his mind; the twins and Harry followed bemusedly. The Hufflepuffs were just starting to look like they might run if Ron got any closer, when a second snowball _whooshed_ past Harry and caught George in the side of the head.  
  
"It came from over there!" Fred called quickly, and they all whirled around to look where he was pointing just in time to see Percy calmly throw a snowball which hit Ron neatly in the face.  
  
Ron wiped the snow from his eyes and gaped along with his brothers and Harry. Percy closed his book, apparently in no hurry, then gave them a mild look over his horn-rimmed glasses.  
  
"What's the matter? Aren't _you_ the ones who wanted me to join you?"  
  
Fred's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Harry and the others could do no more than stare.  
  
"Really," Percy sniffed indignantly. "I don't think it's so wrong for me to join my brothers in a bit of a snowball fight."  
  
And he grinned at them, looking entirely too pleased with himself.  
  
Harry couldn't resist. "Nice shot!" he called gleefully to Percy, who stood and, with a cheerful nod in Harry's direction, started back up the castle steps, still smirking. This was just too much for Harry, and he doubled over laughing. Ron, Fred and George looked at each other sheepishly.  
  
"Beaten at our own game!" said Fred.  
  
"A sad day indeed," George added, shaking his head.  
  
Ron ceremoniously scooped up a handful of snow. "Why don't we go wipe that look off his face?"  
  
Identical evil looks sprouted on the twins' faces.   
  
"Why Ron!" Fred exclaimed in an innocent tone. "We couldn't do such a terrible thing to dear Percy, could we, George?"  
  
"Actually Fred, I believe we could."  
  
"Quick!" Harry said, just recovering from his laughing fit. "He'll be inside in a minute -"  
  
The twins and Ron took off and Harry followed more slowly, still clutching his aching ribs. He caught up just in time to hear Percy bark, "George Weasley, don't you _dare_! This is a library book, if you get it wet I swear I'll -"   
  
There was a loud _thwap_, then two more in quick succession; Harry reached the landing at the top of the stairs and found it hard not to burst out laughing again as he saw three snow-covered Weasleys being chased into the entrance hall by a similarly snow-covered Percy.   
  
"Can't take a dose of your own medicine, eh Perce?" Ron taunted.  
  
Percy was panting in his effort to keep up. "Don't think I won't tell Madam Pince what happened to this book!"   
  
"Quite a threat, that is," Fred said to his twin.  
  
"We'll just inform her that it was a simple matter of revenge!"  
  
"I'm sure she'll understand."  
  
Harry sped up, joining the others, and they all ran full-speed back to the Gryffindor common room. The Weasleys, Harry decided as they all approached the common room cold, wet and gasping for breath, were definitely the best family ever.  
  



End file.
